Koyukuk River In general, mid October marks the time when the Koyukuk river, which flows out of the Brooks Range, freezes over. The ice formation on the river creates interesting patterns and shapes during its freeze-thaw-freeze phase. The crystal clear water seems about as pure as water can get. This picture was taken on Oct…
Yesterday concluded our photo venture with Alaska’s polar bears and it was a great day of viewing and a challenging day of photography. Winds that gusted to 50mph were sweeping across the coast blowing snow and salt spray. This in conjunction with the lens shake caused by such force made shooting difficult. However, I think…
Today proved to be an amazing photographic venture. I woke at 5:00am to an amazing aurora display, and only had time to snap a few pictures before traveling north to the arctic coast for polar bear photography. Our group arrived just in time to catch some golden sunset light on a female polar bear with…
Alaska polar bears While guiding a group of photographers on a recent tour for Alaska polar bears, aurora and other opportunistic arctic subjects, we had the wonderful opportunity to spend some time with these playful polar bear cubs. Like many young animals, they are curious, playful and active, when the parents often sleep or rest.…
If you have followed this blog at all, you will see that the Brooks Range mountains that arc across Alaska’s arctic are a common subject. The range is massive and equally amazing visually, in its diversity of geography and geology. After a successful photo session with the polar bears along the coast, our current photo…
Cloudy skies, although not good for aurora, offered some good light for afternoon photography of this family of polar bears. The sow with two cubs take shelter from the winds common to the north coast of Alaska’s arctic. Shooting directly into the wind with lightly blowing snow at temperatures around freezing present some problems with…
The arctic photo tour I’m guiding was off to a good start on the first evening as clear skies eventually revealed some aurora activity. What was particularly interesting about the display was not it’s brightness but rather the color reflection in the Koyukuk river. It’s been a busy few days and hopes are high for…
Veterans of river travel know that waterways can be a creature of movement in more ways than one. In mountain country, rainfall in the hills all goes downhill by gravity and ends up ocean-bound via the river system. In Alaska’s arctic specifically, most river flow is dominated by snow melt or rain, unlike many of…
Contrary to what many non-photographers think, the bluebird day, cloudless skies are generally not welcomed by the landscape photographer-not me anyway. They might ensure first and last light upon the land, but there is little art in the sky without some shapes and lines offered by broken clouds moving dynamically overhead. It is these latter…
During a raft trip down the Marsh Fork of the Canning river, a long day hike up into the mountains led me to some vociferous plovers that nest in the region. While I have a number of Plover photos that I consider better than this one, I did photograph the bird because of the specific…